(7/21) - Some odd stream-related issues have been occurring. I am looking into the issue to try and pinpoint a source of the problem.

In other news... THE DONATE BUTTON NOW WORKS AGAIN! ;-)

Thanks to everyone who has donated; you're the reason this non-profit project still exists. :)

Other quick updates:

7/20 - Hundreds of new songs are still being placed into rotation each week. Beyond that, I have added another tier of quality scoring to provide better balance to the rotation formula. Over the coming weeks I will be entertaining other ideas as well to weed out the longer high-quality songs and reduce their rotation in spite of their high-quality nature. At this point, this project truly has become rather complex in its composition.

Sure, this site's ugly and bare. But the whole point of it is to provide you with some centralized location for my newest endeavor, an internet radio station dedicated solely to music from games (mostly) on Nintendo's systems (but not officially supported or promoted by Nintendo or any game company). Well, and occasionally some other stuff thrown in for good measure.

Who are you?

I'm OtherSteve (a.k.a., Steve Schardein), Managing Editor at the relatively new DigitalChumps.com, though this project is entirely unaffiliated. I'm a longtime gamer and active member of the IGN Boards community, which also happens to be where this whole idea was born, as a product of requests from users interested in my game music collection.

What makes OSNMR different?

What's the difference between this and other game music stations? Well, for starters, I've got a ton of music, plenty of which I actually own (wherever possible). The rest of it is out of print and/or not made available to the US at all (and a lot of what I own fits those categories as well). I am a huge supporter and a bit of a collector, and for over a decade I've been amassing videogame music. But that isn't all I've been doing; I've also been scoring and sorting the music by quality, on the way to work and otherwise when I have a bit of spare time to dedicate to the project. Everything is tiered, and I've tried to be as objective as possible in my choices. The playlist has been formulated so that the better songs play more often, and some of the obscure stuff only appears once in a blue moon. This should make it fun to listen to; it isn't just a huge amalgamation of game music--it's actually sorted.

Please also keep in mind that as of right now, while there is a lot of music in circulation (many thousands of songs), this concept is still being developed. It is going to grow by the hundreds each week, and I will also be tweaking the song rotations... so it will remain fresh.

Are you doing this to make money?

No. Please note that this is a nonprofit operation. I am not looking to make money from this. All donations go right back into the operation of the station.

Similarly, if you are the owner of a song that you heard on the station and you don't want your music being played, simply drop me a line and I'll remove it for you. This is meant to be a celebration of gaming and game music, as well as the companies that provide it, and thus I'm not seeking to become rich off of someone else's work. My sole motivation in running this service is to hopefully expose more Americans to the beauty and oft-overlooked quality of videogame music; it is my intention that hopefully one day our public will be as interested in purchasing and enjoying game music as the Japanese have been for decades.

Donations

Having said that, this is also quite expensive. I've already ponied up the cash for the startup and I am putting in all the requisite time to keep things growing. If you'd like to donate a few bucks ($1, 5, 10, whatever--I appreciate any help), it'd be of enormous help. I want to keep this thing going as long as I possibly can, but I can already tell it's not going to be as cheap as I initially thought. That's the beauty of the internet though: there's strength in numbers, and small donations from people who love the idea will keep things running!

If you enjoy what you hear and you'd like to support the cause, click the button below to offer some monetary relief. And Thank You!

KEEP US GOING -- DONATE!

Brought to you by OtherSteve. Questions? Comments? Though it's completely unaffiliated with the project, I managed to snag some forum space where I write at DigitalChumps.com. I'd love to hear your thoughts there.

Can you provide a list of music that you play?

No lists will be provided; I feel it's more fun if people discover stuff like that for themselves. With the current rotation schedule, you'd have to listen well in excess of a solid, uninterrupted two weeks to hear most of the songs. How's that for a library? With your donations, this will only continue to grow.